Injuries, sickness suddenly pose major threat to promising season

Dec. 10, 2013

Michigan State's Keith Appling is attended to as coach Tom Izzo talks to the officials after Appling was injured in Wednesday's loss to North Carolina in East Lansing. / Julian H. Gonzalez/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — One of Tom Izzo’s starters has tested positive for mononucleosis. Another has a bum right ankle. Another has plantar fasciitis.

Another took “as hard a hit on the hip as I’ve ever seen,” Izzo said about last week’s Michigan State loss to North Carolina. And he might be most concerned about the fifth.

Questions abound, suddenly, for an MSU team (7-1) that fell from No. 1 to No. 5 in the polls on Monday.

Here’s what is known about the Spartans’ next game, Saturday against Oakland (4 p.m., ESPN2) at the Palace — sophomore center Matt Costello will miss it and as much as three weeks with mono, sophomore shooting guard Gary Harris is likely to miss it as he tries to heal his problematic right ankle, and senior forward Adreian Payne is more likely to play despite ongoing plantar fasciitis in his foot.

Senior point guard Keith Appling is expected to be fine, though the hard spill and hip shot he took in the UNC game looked so bad to Izzo on film, he texted to Appling: “Sorry.”

He’s not sorry, though, about the displeasure he expressed with the play of junior forward Branden Dawson after the 79-65 loss to the Tar Heels. In fact, after watching film, he said his evaluation of Dawson’s play was “worse.”

“And I think for him it was worse,” Izzo said.

Dawson sat most of the second half after the Tar Heels bullied him on the glass and around the basket. He responded positively the next day, Izzo said.

Other than health, defense and rebounding are the concerns for the Spartans right now. Payne, Costello and others have expressed urgency to improve in those areas, but it has not showed enough on the court.

Izzo and his players traveled to Indianapolis on Saturday to watch the MSU football team beat Ohio State for the Big Ten title. He hopes there’s a benefit for his team other than the good time had by all.

“I told them, ‘You’ve got to learn how to win a championship … get a feel for it,’ ” Izzo said of the football team’s example. “If I stick by my rule of thumb that the best defensive teams and the toughest teams physically win, I thought we showed that. I thought we were that. And I thought we were that all year.”

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New rules emphasizing calls for hand checking have prompted Izzo to back his team off at times from physical defense, but he said Monday he’s done worrying about officiating and won’t be “paranoid” in his approach anymore.

■ ROSE BOWL TRIP? Izzo said he is looking into the possibility of traveling to the Rose Bowl, but it might have to be the rest of his family without him when No. 4 MSU takes on No. 5 Stanford on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif.

Izzo’s team plays at Penn State at 5 p.m. on Dec. 31. Izzo could charter a flight from there to California, but the problem, he said, is that his Spartans play at Indiana on Jan. 4. That would take him out of the equation for what would normally be a heavy preparation day.

MESSAGE TO TROUBLEMAKERS: As usual, Izzo minced no words when it came to students and others burning couches and causing disturbances, as was the case in East Lansing after the football team’s win Saturday.

Much larger disturbances have happened in the past after big basketball games, most notably after MSU’s loss to Duke in the 1999 Final Four.

“It happens everywhere, so let’s not single us out and get into that thing,” he said. “But we’ve got to figure out something … I’ll get ripped for it but I was 200% disappointed, maybe even the word ‘disgusted’ by it.”

Izzo said he would like to be more involved in preventing such incidents and will talk with football coach Mark Dantonio and athletic director Mark Hollis about what can be done.